THE CANADIAN TRANSLATION MARKET

Aug 1, 2014 | Blog

Some Figures about the Canadian Translation Market. How big is the Canadian Translation Market? According to Statistics Canada, the number of individuals who declare revenue from translation in the whole country is greater than 12,000, and few professions have as much growth potential as this one. Quebec is the leading region, with 5,325 translators, followed by Ontario with 4,155. The two provinces combined account for 80% of all translators and interpreters in Canada. However, British Columbia is also a leading province for translation, with over 600 translators just in Vancouver. What is the value of the Canadian Translation Market? The value of the Canadian Translation Market is estimated at about $450 million, excluding the value of translations provided by the in-house translation services of Canadian businesses and organizations. This market is served by over 800 firms and some 4,500 independent workers. 48% of firms are in Quebec (which represents 382 translation agencies), 37% are in Ontario (296 translation agencies) and 6% are in British Columbia (52 translation agencies). Prospective growth of the Canadian Translation Market looks excellent as the expected rate of annual growth ranges between 5% and 10%. If you need translation services in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, call LingoStar today or send us an email for a free quote! Here we have qualified translators from all over the world able to work on any kind of...

THE TRANSLATION INDUSTRY ON TOP OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Jul 15, 2014 | Blog

Translation industry 1 – Cloud translation Cloud translation is the process of translating a document across the internet by using a portal that allows you to upload and manage files from just one location. You no longer need to use emails in order to send files, receive a quote, approve it and finally receive the translation. Thanks to this tool, you can now log on from any device to order a new translation job, approve a quote, check the progress of a project and download your translation. It will be really helpful for the translation industry 2 – Social media translation Social media is a good way for the translation industry to target a multi-national audience; however you have to take into account the differences between cultures in order for your campaign to be effective. Translating your content is just the first step. It is also useful to create a page / an account per country to communicate with customers on a local scale according to their interests, their cultures, the events they are going to, etc. 3 –Mobile apps translation Another way to target a multi-national audience for the translation, is to localize your mobile apps for different languages and different platforms. This way, you will be able to keep in touch with people from all over the world using different kinds of devices. Here at LingoStar, we specialize in localizing content to meet the specific cultural standards of your target market. If you want to make the best impression on your market, call us today at 604-629-8420, or email us at info@lingo-star.com for a free...

LANGUAGE MELTING POTS: LANGUAGE TRANSLATION SERVICE

Jul 10, 2014 | Blog

Language Translation Service We are living in a more and more globalized world, people tend to move to different countries much more than they used to do and this leads to having highly linguistically diverse cities all around the world. For example, in the United-States, more than 20% of people do not speak English at home. To reach these people, you may need to use a language translation service. So what are the main language melting pots on the planet? *New-York, US In New-York, over 800 different languages are spoken. Therefore, this is the most linguistically diverse city in the world. It shows in the subway, where the information signs are written in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Italian, German and even Hebrew, It’s the perfect example of a situation where you may need to use a language translation service. *Manchester, UK In Manchester, you can hear more than 200 languages. This city is the most linguistically diverse city in Western Europe. You may need to use a language translation service to translate your files into these languages . Around 4 out of 10 people speak at least one language other than English. The most common languages there are English, Urdu, Arabic, Chinese, Bengali, Polish, Panjabi and Somali. *Toronto, Canada In Toronto, there are over 150 different languages spoken. This is the most linguistically diverse city in Canada. 45% of the residents speak a mother tongue other than French or English, which is likely to be Cantonese, Italian, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Mandarin or Portuguese. To reach these targets, you will need to use a language translation service....

HOW TO AVOID MISTRANSLATION WITH CALL CENTER.

Jul 8, 2014 | Blog

Call-Center and Mistranslation. *Lack of language skills On one hand, the employee’s accent has to be easy to understand for your customer. You can achieve that by resorting to accent neutralization training. On the other hand, the employee has to be able to understand the caller perfectly as well. This is essential and they must be able to communicate effectively to avoid any mistranslation. *Lack of training Employees need to have sufficient knowledge of the product or services involved that they are selling, all the more if they are not available in their home country. It is important that they are experts of your industry, not to rely too much on scripts, and are able to manage efficiently the requests of the clients who are calling to avoid mistranslation or misunderstood. *Cultural differences Many behaviors your clients expect from a customer service employee (extra-politeness, empathy, etc.) are not common among foreign employees. You have to train them so that these behaviors become natural for them. *Poor location In some countries, the wages are low, which can be attractive. However you also have to take into consideration the government stability and the economic situation to make sure that hiring employees from those countries will not affect your business in the long term. *Lack of security The call center should have security guards on-duty 24/7 to provide a safe workplace for employees and to protect your data. You should also have the employees sign a nondisclosure agreement. If you are planning on outsourcing your call centre overseas and need documents translated, call LingoStar today or send us an email for a...

Website Translation for Global Markets

Jul 7, 2014 | Blog, Language Services, Tips, Translation

How valuable is website translation? Do you know how much international traffic your website gets? Have you ever asked yourself how much more it might receive if it was translated into multiple languages? A world class translation service with linguists and professional translators at its disposal can be worth its weight in gold. The fact is, in today’s global markets, a multilingual website is increasingly valuable. Its importance is such that it requires the dedication of professionals–human and not simply machines–to craft and perfect its message to appeal to local markets and effectively market to them. On the importance of human, professional translators There are many benefits to a well-translated website. Firstly, it has an authoritative advantage over competitors who may not rely on a professional service. They may rely on crowd-sourced or automatic translation. This is risky, however, because incorrect and even improper translation can undermine a company’s authority by making them appear ignorant or inept. Few would call the Coca-Cola brand and its marketers inept, of course, but even such major companies have endured language faux-pas and accidental mistakes that actually made headlines. Not so long ago, Coca-Cola spent a considerable amount of money printing signs that sounded like their brand name in Chinese but the wording actually told consumers to ‘bite the wax tadpole.’ Why use a translation agency? Some companies may choose to hire their own translator, but there are added benefits to working with a translation service. For one, website translation typically requires ongoing maintenance. Each time you add new content to the site, it will require professional translation. A translation service has teams...

SCAMMERS IN THE LANGUAGE INDUSTRY

Jul 4, 2014 | Blog

Scammers: A real danger? What is their basic mode of operation? Scammers steal resumes from professional translators. They replace the email address on the resume with their own and even change the name for a fake one sometimes. They also replace the phone number with an IP (Internet Protocol) phone number. Once this is done, they respond to online job offers with this fake CV or spam clients in order to get translations jobs. How do scammers find those translators’ resumes? They create fake translation companies with fake names, addresses, emails, etc. in order to receive resumes from new potential employees. Once they have them, they attempt to get translators to sign authorizations to use their resumes. Translators have to be very careful. On one hand, because their names can be used without them knowing it to do all sort of things they cannot control. Their reputation of being good translators can be severely endangered on the internet. On the other hand, because fake agencies try to appear legitimate by asking translators for test translations and having fake profiles on translation forums. How do those fake translation agencies work? They either translate with Google translation or send the job to the cheapest translator they can find, who is likely to be a poor translator and not to get paid in the end.  This is why they either deliver nothing or a useless translation to the client. In the end, the invoice is sent from an unidentified PayPal address and if the client refuses to pay, the fake agency starts to threaten them. This is why clients should turn to...